What Is Emby?

Are you tired of the limitations of traditional media platforms? Do you want a more personalized entertainment experience that puts you in control? Emby is the ultimate media-server solution that brings your media library to life. You may also be wondering how to pronounce Emby: it sounds like the letters “M B” spoken together.

Without further ado, let's explore how Emby can transform the way you watch and collect media!

🥷Overview of Key Features#

Emby brings all your media—home videos, music, and photos—together in one place, making it easy to organize, play, and stream on almost any common or uncommon media device.

But Emby does much more than organize and stream media. It also offers a range of features and services. For example, you can stream live TV to any device, record and manage TV content, and use parental controls for comprehensive access control and management of household content.

Emby's core media solution is free, but the free edition has feature limitations. Emby Premiere unlocks additional features, including offline downloads, media artwork, and free iOS and Android apps. You can also purchase official client unlocks separately on different platforms.

Emby officially emphasizes that it is not a video-streaming platform, and that is true: you must connect to a server that you or someone else has installed, then use one of the various client apps to access the server's media. Emby itself does not provide movies or TV shows. However, its easy setup process, extensive movie and TV features, and excellent playback experience naturally make it attractive to people who want to host a video-streaming service.

⚙️How Does Emby Work?#

Emby uses a client-server architecture. This allows users—the clients—to access media on the server seamlessly, either remotely or locally. The software serves media on demand by retrieving the media files stored on the server. This is why NAS devices are useful for running media servers, and why Emby supports many NAS platforms. Emby client software is an essential part of this architecture. It can be installed on any playback-capable device, including a TV, computer, phone, or even an Xbox.

🍼Background of Emby#

Emby, originally known as Media Browser, initially consisted mainly of open-source components along with some closed-source elements. After version 3.5.3, however, Emby became proprietary, making it impossible to build copies from the source because the build code was proprietary. Version 3.5.3 marked Emby's complete transition to a closed-source model, with only its plugins remaining explicitly open source. This major change led to Jellyfin, an independent fork that is both free and open source.

💰Emby Pricing (United States)#

Emby offers two kinds of premium paid plans, as well as separate client-feature unlocks: Premiere licenses come in three options: US$4.99 per month, US$54 per year, and a US$119 lifetime license. All of these Premiere licenses are limited to 30 devices. Premiere subscriptions come in two options: US$13.99 per month with a 50-device limit, and US$23.99 per month with an 80-device limit. Client unlocks cost US$4.99 on each platform. Users who have purchased Emby Premiere do not need to buy them separately.

✅Device Compatibility#

Emby Server runs on computers using Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and other operating systems. It is also compatible with NAS products including ASUSTOR, FreeNAS, Netgear, Open Media Vault, QNAP, Synology, TerraMaster, Thecus, TrueNAS, unRAID, and Western Digital. Other supported platforms include Android, Docker, Cloudron, Flatpak, NVIDIA Shield, and Snap. Emby clients can connect from web browsers based on HTML5, mobile devices running Android or iOS, and desktop systems running Linux, macOS, or Windows. The software also runs on streaming devices such as Roku, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, and Apple TV. It supports game consoles including PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360, as well as Alexa voice assistants, Android Auto in-car systems, LG and Samsung smart TVs—and many others—QNAP NAS devices, NVIDIA Shield, Raspberry Pi, Kodi, Snap, and more.

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🤝Emby Community and Support#

Emby provides official help documentation for users and developers, along with a community forum. Learn more at https://emby.media/community